Posts tagged ‘internships’

When David Burpee took over as president of the W. Atlee Burpee Seed Company in 1915 he set out to find a new flower to surpass the popularity of the sweet pea. Always the progressive thinker, Burpee knew the sweet pea craze of the late 1800s was nearing its end and felt it was the perfect time for Burpee & Company to thrill the gardening world with a new “all-American” flower.

The sweet pea had been a favorite among American gardeners for decades, but by the early twentieth century its popularity was waning. Sweet peas were temperamental and difficult to grow. While they looked beautiful in a garden, they were too delicate to use in floral arrangements.

Burpee sought a new flower that would appeal to more gardeners and developed a list of requirements. It needed to be strong and resistant to disease, easy to cultivate, and adaptable to growing conditions throughout the country. In addition, Burpee wanted a flower that had large showy blooms with all the aesthetic appeal of the sweet pea, but none of its less favorable qualities.

It was a tall order, but Burpee felt he found the right flower in the marigold. Marigolds had large, full blooms and long, sturdy stems, making them ideal for cut flower arrangements. They could also be grown throughout the U.S. They seemed perfect except for one flaw: marigold leaves have small sacs containing an oil called terpene which gives the plant a foul odor. The oil protects the plant against natural predators, but also makes it unfavorable among gardeners. Burpee decided rather than giving up on the marigold that he would just ‘fix’ it by getting rid of this unpleasant characteristic.

David Burpee in a field of marigolds. Photo courtesy of Burpee Gardens

Burpee searched the globe hoping to find a terpene-free marigold variety. By 1931 he had collected hundreds of specimens and seeds. Experts at Burpee’s experimental farms grew thousands of plants from these samples, but met with no success. Every marigold had the odor-causing terpene sacs. All, including Burpee, feared the experiment would never succeed.

Then in late 1933 a letter arrived from Carter Holton, a missionary in China who had seen Burpee’s request for marigold seeds in an American magazine. Holton claimed to have found a completely odorless marigold and offered to send Burpee its seeds for $25. Skeptical, Burpee nonetheless had the requested funds wired to Holton.

Four months later a package of seeds arrived. They were planted at the company’s farm in the spring of 1934. As Burpee watched the plants struggle to grow, he remained doubtful. The Chinese marigolds bloomed late and produced unimpressive flowers. Unconcerned with the bloom, Burpee wanted to know if this variety suffered from the same odiferous curse as other marigolds.

As a test, Burpee fed foliage from the Chinese plants and other marigolds to the barnyard animals at his farm. To his delight they ate the foliage from the Chinese marigold, but ignored the others. Burpee had found his treasure! His horticultural experts immediately began crossing the Chinese marigold with other varieties to develop a plant that was robust and odor-free.

This first generation of marigold hybrids were grown at Burpee’s trial grounds under the protection of armed guards. One of the plants in the trial stood out. By definition a mutant, it bloomed early and produced a large orange flower. Most importantly, its foliage was odorless.

Burpee employees collected and planted seeds from this new hybrid. Soon dozens of Burpee’s “gift-from-God” marigolds were growing and replicating the favorable characteristics of their mutant parent. By late 1936 Burpee & Company began selling seeds for this miracle flower named the Collarette Marigold “Crown of Gold” to the public. It was even showcased on the cover of the company’s 1937 seed catalog. Just as Burpee hoped, the introduction of a scentless marigold took the gardening world by storm. The plant was the only flower to receive a gold medal at the All-America trials in 1937.

David Burpee helped create a scentless marigold which quickly became a beloved classic among American gardeners. He didn’t stop there, however. As he hinted to a reporter in 1937, “There might be marigolds in many colors—some day—perhaps!”

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Orchid Family day booths set up in the National Museum of Natural History

After working with orchids for five weeks, I could not have been more thrilled to share the splendor of orchids with families and museum-goers at Orchid Family Day. The event was held Saturday, February 22nd on the ground floor of the National Museum of Natural History, and drew a large crowd even in the face of a snowstorm. Smithsonian Gardens, the United States Botanic Garden, and the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center joined together to engage and educate Orchid Family Day participants about orchids and orchid care. Stations included building terrariums, creating botanical illustrations, making paper orchid corsages, asking an expert any orchid question, learning about orchid research, and potting an orchid to take home.

Naturally, there’s always some amount of preparation work that goes into any event. Planning Orchid Family Day took a team of Smithsonian Gardens staff and volunteers. Over numerous weeks, the group developed activities, prepared necessary materials, and helped gather the staff and volunteers needed to run activities. We also created orchid information panels from scratch to pair with the day’s activities. As an intern, I was able to collaborate and create the initial drafts of three display panels. The text then had to pass through several people for editing and revising to ensure quality and accuracy. After having gathered some of the first research for these panels, it was incredible to see the transformation from a simple word document into a professional looking display panel. It was a great opportunity, and I’m proud to have played an influential role in the development of Orchid Family Day.

The Orchid Family Day Panels in final form.

Aside from event logistics, Orchid Family Day also needed publicity. Event details were posted online but word of mouth brought more people than the publicity alone could have. In fact, even with the threat of a snowstorm, hundreds of people showed up for the event. Impressively, as the doors to the National Museum of Natural History opened, countless families and individuals flooded into the museum. Although many patrons were excited to be the first in the exhibit halls, a steady stream of people made their way to the family day activities.

Making orchid corsages!

The enthusiasm of people bouncing between tables, building terrariums then potting orchids, made for equally enthusiastic staff and volunteers at each table to engage the ever changing visitors. I had the chance to witness several staff and volunteers of the gardens participate in demonstrations that were very unlike the work I’ve what previously seen them do. For example, one of the Smithsonian Gardens supervisors was helping make paper orchid corsages! It was incredibly enjoyable seeing the staff engaged with participants whether it was through drawing, potting, building, or teaching. I had the opportunity to staff the botanical illustration table, which is something I’ve never studied or worked much with before. Regardless, it was a lot of fun watching children color in orchid outlines and use their illustrations for all kinds of art projects. We initially intended for them just to create bookmarks, but they got creative and made necklaces and pictures to give to their parents too. Their enthusiasm was endless and parents often had to gently coax their children away from the table when it was time for them to go.

Examples of the terrariums visitors could make and take home with them.

Many curious minds wandered into the exhibit, and not all were children. Adults wishing to learn more about orchids made the “ask an expert” table very popular. They also enjoyed discovering the latest in orchid research and conservation at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center table. And of course, the ever popular “pot an orchid” station may have stolen the show for most individuals as the U.S. Botanic Garden brought a thousand orchids to give away for free. Orchid Family Day activities offered something for everybody, so make sure to come out to the next one in 2017!

– Alan M., Orchid Exhibition Intern

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Orchids are full of wonder. They have a vast amount of habitat diversity across the globe including swamps, deserts, tropics, and tundra. In fact, orchids are so diverse there’s almost no end to them, and this doesn’t even include the ones human have hybridized. You name a part of the plant and it’s bound to be different from genus to genus in the family Orchidaceae. To illustrate, take a look at Ludisia discolor and Oncidopsis Nelly Isler ‘Swiss Beauty’ currently on display in the exhibit “Orchids: Interlocking Science and Beauty.”

Oncidopsis Nelly Isler ‘Swiss Beauty’

Ludisia discolor

These two plants show just how varied orchids can be in color, flower size, number of blooms, and even the general foliage. Though different, each still retains a beauty in its own way. Ludisiadiscolor, also called a jewel orchid, is sought after for its foliage rather than its flowers. It’s a terrestrial orchid found in Asia and its leaves are a deep green lined with red veins. Oncidopsis Nelly Isler ‘Swiss Beauty,’ on the other hand, is distinguished by its pleasant red blooms and gives off a unique fragrance. Furthermore, Nelly Isler ‘Swiss Beauty’ is a hybrid containing a mixture of four different species, while Ludisia discolor is a species found in the wild. And these two only make up a fraction of the 8,000+ orchids in Smithsonian Gardens’ collection.

Fortunately, there’s a system in place that helps keep track of the many plants in the Smithsonian Gardens Orchid Collection. This is extremely important because as a “living collection” it’s always growing and changing. Each orchid in the collection is given a specific barcode label that links to a database record containing important information about the plant. In addition to keeping basic information like its genus and species, the record reveal the plant’s current location, condition, and notes about its current use. All of this information is important for consistent record keeping. After scanning upwards of 80 to 100 plants each week, eventually you begin to pick up some interesting information. For example, some of these orchids are over 30 years old!

Orchid display labels

Maintaining the database is essential to keeping the orchid exhibit running smoothly. Plants selected for the exhibit are scanned at the beginning of each week in order to keep track of their changing location. Every Monday and Tuesday, I work to arrange these selected orchids into rank and file at the greenhouses with the help of several other greenhouse staff and volunteers. This makes scanning the pants’ barcodes and recording whether they’re leaving for the show or returning a simple process. It also makes it easy to pull the corresponding display labels. If you’ve made it to the show, you probably recognize those gleaming black and white labels in the photo. Smithsonian Gardens actually keeps label library chock full of thousands of these labels!

Plastic-wrapped carts ready to go downtown

Once all the tags are scanned and display labels staked, plants have to be loaded onto carts and plastic wrapped. It’s lovely that orchids bloom during the winter, but it’s dangerous for us to have to move them outside in cold weather! The plastic wrap provides a temporary buffer from the cold temperatures, which could otherwise harm the blooms and overall health of the orchids. We then swiftly move these carts from greenhouse to box truck and box truck to exhibit hall; minimizing the time they’re outside in the cold. All this scanning, packing, and loading is a bit of a logistical feat, so it’s no surprise something may get left along the way. Case in point, I once forgot to bring the roll of plastic wrap to the exhibit hall.

Now those plants wrapped in the picture above look pretty professional, but that’s only half the battle. It’s incredibly important to take the plastic wrap to the museum because the carts bringing plants back from the exhibit really need protection from the cold as well. These are, after all, orchids that are stressed out from the less than ideal conditions of the exhibit hall. Since we did not have plastic wrap available the Smithsonian Gardens staff improvised and obtained trash bags. The bags made for sufficient protection during the trip back, even if it looked like we were stealing the plants. That was, however, an incredibly stressful experience for me because I was sure we were going to lose part of the collection. I’ll make sure to bring the plastic wrap in the future!

National Herbarium tour

To help balance stressful moments like this, Smithsonian Gardens regularly offers really great opportunities for interns to experience. There are internal tours, in-service sessions, and other educational opportunities that I’m able to attend with my intern status. Recently, I had the opportunity to take a tour of the National Herbarium at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. If you’re like me, you had to look up the definition of a herbarium and figure out what all the commotion is about for a library of dried plants. Aside from the general appealing aesthetics of neatly dried and pressed plants, the National Herbarium has millions of specimens. Its collection includes type specimens, around thirty plants currently extinct in the wild, and even plants collected by former presidents like Theodore Roosevelt and Chester Arthur. It also contains some seriously historical plants, like one collected in the 1500s! It’s almost inconceivable to think about everything that’s housed in the herbarium. Check it out online at http://botany.si.edu/colls/collections_overview.htm.

World’s largest seed

After the tour, I’m really excited for what other opportunities may pop up next. I’m looking forward to making the most of these experiences and sharing them on the Smithsonian Gardens’ blog. That’s all for now, but enjoy another photo from the herbarium of the world’s largest seed. This dried seed still weighs a cool twenty pounds!

-Alan M., Orchid Exhibition Intern

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A lot of work goes into making an exhibit like this year’s orchid show, “Orchids: Interlocking Science and Beauty.” Of course there’s the joint effort of Smithsonian Gardens, U.S. Botanic Garden and National Museum of Natural History staff, but what about all the finer details? How do those beautiful orchids and other plants made it onto the show floor? Was all that Spanish moss really hung by hand? What about the angle of that delicate little orchid you didn’t notice until your second or third time visiting? Are the plants changed each week?

My name is Alan Marcus and I’m currently the spring exhibition intern with Smithsonian Gardens. I wasn’t ready for the barrage of work to address all the little details of this year’s orchid exhibit when I arrived this month, but I’ve tried my best to keep up. It was fun getting thrown into the mix of preparation and I love telling everyone about all the effort that goes into it. Honestly, the work wasn’t nearly as tedious as I make it seem. In fact, it was quite the opposite! Hopefully I’ve piqued your interest to explore and continue reading into the less glamorous side of this year’s beautiful orchid exhibition. Let’s take a look at a somewhat typical work day for exhibition set up.

Mornings. Start. Early. OK, so 6:30 am isn’t the earliest start for work, but it can be a little exhausting after a while. What really motivates the staff to arrive for work every day is that everyone loves what they do. It’s simple. I know that sounds corny, but honestly its something I think is so important for visitors to know about this exhibit. On top of arriving early at the greenhouses, every day starts with a morning meeting (where you can imagine everyone’s at their finest). The staff is a true cast of characters, but the plants and the work they do for the public are things everyone comes together on. Every orchid you see, every minute detail from the mulch in the planters to the hook the lab coat rests on, was labored over with love for the exhibit and the potential joy it can bring to all visitors. That’s what gets the staff to the greenhouses in the morning to meet and load plants onto trucks bound for the National Museum of Natural History by 7 am.

Staff working on the green wall

Exhibit hall from above

Once in the exhibit hall, staff worked on their various assignments from the morning meeting. Some spent the morning visualizing and creating a steamy jungle display, while others busily ensured plants have the proper drain plates underneath them and are covered with mulch on top. My work was really all over the place, but that was great because I had the chance to work closely with a different staff member each day. This allowed me to ask all sorts of questions about the orchids. Two orchids in particular struck me with awe. Those orchids were Psychopsis mariposa and Maxillariella elatior. They’re both strangely attractive plants and their biology reveals something unique about each orchid. The shiny bottom lip of the elatior orchid fooled me in thinking there’s some kind of nectar present, but it’s actually dry to the touch. This is one way it tricks pollinators into landing on its flower. On the other hand, the mariposa flower has a beautifully eerie shape that appears as a butterfly frozen in flight and can successively bloom for several months.

Just as my work changed, work on the show floor can be very different from person to person and from day to day. It’s nothing short of impressive watching the staff move about the room to fix up their areas. Something I was not expecting to see, but that is also worth mentioning, is that staff members did not just focus on their part of the display alone. For the sake of the exhibit’s theme, staff members were often asked to opine on specific design choices and how plantings could better fit in overall. Often, I was asked for my opinion about the color arrangements of orchids or about the positioning of certain plants to help make the display look more authentic and easier to view from the floor.

Lunch time!

After working through the morning, lunch comes, and it was eagerly greeted by most. It’s surprisingly challenging work trying to coordinate all parts of the exhibit together, and I think it takes a full belly to complete the work efficiently. Either way, lunches were enjoyable. Work sometimes carried into the conversation, but mostly lunch was a time to relax and help get refocused for the afternoon. After lunch, work continued with renewed vigor as portions of display installments came to a close for the day. More often than not, these “finished” portions were revisited several times during the week as the overall design of the exhibit developed and grew to include more elements of the theme. For example, different orchids now line the portion of the exhibit by the laboratory scene than were first placed, and the beautiful white Phalaenopsis near the exit were a last-minute change. Clean up followed shortly after and carts and baskets were loaded back onto trucks to return to the greenhouse for the following day’s deliveries. It took the entire week to get every plant down there!

And that’s how a typical day went for the set-up of this exhibit. There’s really a lot to look at when you make your visit. There will continue to be new orchids to explore since plants need to be swapped out regularly to display the freshest blooms. I ask you to return to the exhibit again and again over the next couple months to take some time to really soak it all in. I promise there will be something new for your visit every time, whether it’s a new plant altogether, or simply a small detail that went unnoticed on your last visit. Everything is placed with a purpose, and there’s no doubt something for all to enjoy.

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Jessica scanning in the Archives of American Gardens reference room at the Smithsonian Gardens offices.

Did you know Smithsonian Gardens does a lot more than just plant and maintain all the beautiful gardens around the Smithsonian properties? I know I didn’t! That is until I became an Archives of American Gardens intern at Smithsonian Gardens. My name is Jessica Brode, and I am a graduate student at George Washington University beginning my final year in the Masters in Museum Studies program.

Before coming to Smithsonian Gardens, I interned with various institutions across the country and abroad. After moving to D.C. I began to specialize in collections management work within museums, mainly assisting in digitization efforts with museums like the Smithsonian’s American History and Natural History Museums. I applied to Smithsonian Gardens after a chance encounter demonstrated that there were opportunities to use my skills there.

Coming in as an Archives of American Gardens intern, I was able to really put my skills to use for Smithsonian Gardens while learning new skills along the way. The Archives of American Gardens (AAG) currently documents over 8,500 gardens throughout the United States, with images ranging from the 1870s to the present. AAG maintains records on historic and contemporary gardens and gardening trends and contains over 150,000 images.

The Hershey Rose Gardens is just one of the garden history topics Jessica explored during her internship. (Hershey Rose Gardens in Hershey, Pennsylvania, c. 1936. Archives of American Gardens, J. Horace McFarland Collection.)

I learned the Horizon cataloging system utilized by the AAG and cataloged often throughout my internship. I was given the opportunity to research and write several exciting blog posts about gardening topics I would have never even thought of, including the Hershey Rose Garden, World Fairs’ gardens, and floral clocks.

The best part of my internship was the ability to take a project further than I ever thought I could. Smithsonian Gardens uses a system called a Digital Asset Management System (or DAMS) in order to track digital images of its gardens and events. I was given the opportunity to rename and reorganize the Smithsonian Gardens folder structure so that images could be filed by garden and year, making it more intuitive for a user to search numerous images. The new re-organization of images will enable staff to easily create slideshows of the best garden images for each of its gardens to make them readily available to the public through the Collections Search Center and SIRIS. It was really exciting to see how my skills could be used to help share garden history with the public!

I am really excited that I had the opportunity to spend the summer with Smithsonian Gardens, and even more excited to see what else is ahead. My internship has been extended so that I can continue my work at the Archives of American Gardens this coming fall and spring, and I am really looking forward to continuing some of the work I began, and starting new projects as well.

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Sarah on site at the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Hello! My name is Sarah Gorney, and I was the Landscape Architecture Intern for the Smithsonian Gardens this summer. I am studying Landscape Architecture at Texas Tech University and will be a senior this fall. Despite attending school in Texas, I am actually from the DC Metro area, so it was great to be home for the summer! And even better was being able to work for the Smithsonian Gardens.

Before I get into some of the many projects I worked on, I’d like to share a small bit about Landscape Architecture. Many people I have run into have been confused as to what Landscape Architecture really is or what we do. Landscape Architecture is defined by the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) as,

On a tour of the inside of the Arts and Industries Building during renovations.

I am thrilled to be studying in a profession that is this diverse, and I was able to see all this in action at the Smithsonian Gardens.

This summer has truly been an amazing experience. Landscape Architecture is a synthesis between the built and natural environment, and the Smithsonian Gardens embody this concept to the fullest. Studying under this organization has allowed me to glean insight into an extremely successful set of on- going designs and what they entail; things such as what factors and issues impact design, the upkeep and daily maintenance of the grounds, cultural requirements, how the gardens relate to specific architecture or time periods, horticultural practices, sustainability, and storm water management.

My design concept for the Calder area outside the National Museum of American History.

My work this summer included projects for every museum at the Smithsonian, including the new National Museum of African American History and Culture slated to open in 2015. I worked on planting plans for multiple museums, coordinated with and prepared documents for professionals from multiple disciplines, completed square footage studies, updated AutoCAD plans for the new bike racks around the Mall, helped coordinate and create cost estimates, develop design concepts for the work and storage area at the Ripley Garden, put together plans for a grant proposal for a bird garden outside the National Museum of Natural History, and much more. I also developed design concepts for the re-design of the Alexander Calder sculpture area (the area outside of the National Museum of American History that used to house the Gwenfritz sculpture). The sculpture was relocated in 1983, but is now being re-installed in its original location on the west side of the museum. In addition, I have gone to more meetings than I can count with professionals all over the Smithsonian and was able to work one-on–one with my boss to really get a feel for what he does.

Getting to experience the issues, specifications, requirements, construction, and coordination that these projects entail has given me extremely valuable insight into the process of how a design is actually constructed. This knowledge will be integral as I grow as a Landscape Architect to design projects that are just as feasible to construct and functional as they are beautiful.

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Applications for 2013 Smithsonian Gardens winter internships should be received no later than November 1, 2012.

Smithsonian Gardens designs, manages, and maintains the gardens and grounds of the many Smithsonian museums in Washington, D.C., which attract over thirty million visitors each year. The Collections Management and Education branch is responsible for developing educational programs and materials as well as managing the Archives of American Gardens and a collection of garden furnishings and horticultural artifacts.

The Smithsonian Gardens’ Education and Outreach Winter Internship

This internship focuses on developing educational content for use in a pilot program dedicated to fostering a healthy environment in local schools through gardening. Working closely with a DC public school, the educators and intern will guide students in exploring and studying green spaces in their own community.

The intern will attend all school meetings, contribute to curriculum design, update the project website, write blog posts, and provide general program support. The intern will also contribute weekly to various social media platforms. There may be an opportunity to develop interpretive labels and content for a final exhibit or write curriculum materials, depending on the interests and experience of the intern.

This project will serve as a research for a future smart phone app where youths across the nation can participate by sharing their community’s garden stories with Smithsonian Gardens. The intern will participate in the smart phone app planning and development meetings.

Requirements

Applicants must be currently enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate program and have completed coursework or be currently enrolled in courses in museum studies or museum education, history, horticulture education or another related field. Applicants must have excellent organizational, analytical, and interpersonal skills, and strong writing skills. Knowledge of Microsoft Office Suite required; experience with digital photography, social media, curriculum writing, and conversational Spanish a plus.

Internship Details

Start date: January (flexible)
2 to 3 days a week for 10 to 16 weeks –also flexible.
Stipend of approximately $100-200 a week.
Course credit for this internship can arranged through your school.
Opportunities to complete special projects that may relate to the intern’s special area of interest.

How to apply

To apply, applicants must register and submit an application online at Smithsonian On-line Academic Application System (SOLAA) at https://solaa.si.edu.

On SOLAA, you can locate Smithsonian Gardens’ internship application under the
Office/Museum/ Research Center: OFFICE OF FACILITIES ENGINEERING AND
OPERATIONS